Worse, the situation that we currently face will continue, which is that a significant portion of our public schools—many of them with the poorest students in DC—will continue to lack full-time nursing coverage.

“The majority of schools receive 40 hours of coverage provided by either a school nurse or allied health staff. 68% of schools have 40 hours of coverage compared to around 56% at this time last year. Currently, a total of 55 schools receive less than 40 hours of health suite coverage but all receive at least 20 hours of nursing coverage.

“Please note that this schedule represents a temporary staffing plan, as our goal is to provide 40 hours of total health suite coverage to all schools with approved health suites. [Ed. Note: What happens in schools without “approved health suites”?] Due to nursing workforce shortages across the country and in our local region, there are currently not enough Children’s School Services (CSS) employed nurses and allied health professionals to achieve our goal. We are continuing to work aggressively with CSS to actively recruit new professionals. Additionally, the SHSP responds to daily changes in staffing due to nurse availability and changing clinical needs of students. Since the start of the school year, short-term shifts in nursing coverage have been required to accommodate daily and frequent needs for health care. We communicate the status of coverage with schools directly when changes are made on a daily basis, and provide staffing updates to our education partners bi-weekly.”

While I appreciate getting this information within a few days of requesting it (and not via FOIA request, either!), it certainly doesn’t provide warm fuzzies.

Here are the 55 schools (by my count, 19 charter schools, the rest DCPS) that currently do not have a full-time nurse, along with each school’s hours of current nursing coverage per week: